This weekend was a big one for Lin’s sock!  Leaving Ann’s sock to sigh over her handsome date, Lin’s sock set out for an adventure at the Iowa City Jazz Festival.  The first exciting thing to happen was that the city bus was free for the weekend, so she rode the bus downtown.  Lin’s sock had never been on the city bus before and got a little worked up while waiting.

Once downtown, she checked out the art fair,

admired the Old Capitol building with its newly refurbished, extra-shiny dome,

and had some yummy falafel from Oasis for lunch.

Then she settled down to enjoy the Rod Pierson Big Band.  Fun fact:  Rod is a local, and has a day job right across the street from Crazy Girl!  (Lin’s sock waves a needle)

There were some swing dancers having a great time dancing on the lawn right behind Lin’s sock, but they weren’t too interested in slowing down long enough to have their picture taken.

 Boy, some good music sure makes the knitting go smoothly.  In no time at all, Lin’s sock was ready to graft closed at the toe!

And since Rod was still playing, there was even time for Lin’s now-finished sock to supervise the beginning of her mate – that picot hem edge is a little tricky, and she wanted to make sure it got done right…

At the end of a long and very hot afternoon, Lin’s sock finally headed home for some time in the air conditioning and an iced drink.  This will probably be her only trip to the jazz festival ever (seeing as how 90 degree weather doesn’t usually call for wool socks), so she was glad to have been able to make the trip while she could.

What have Ann and Nancy’s socks been up to this summer?  Stay tuned for more sock adventures!

6-9-08 This week we go off the beaten track, as Ann's sock had a date!

Her companion for the evening was a dashing sock knitted out of Noro Sock Yarn. They met on Ravelry.com, and made plans to go to a movie.

The Noro sock showed up right on time.


"Flowers, my favorite!" cried Ann's sock.



They had drinks and even held cuffs for a while….



Then off to the movie!



The Noro sock acted like a true gentlesock in the car.

They bought tickets and popcorn

"Gee Whiz!" the Noro Sock thought to himself. "This costs more than me!"

But the movie was worth it, although there weren't nearly enough knitted items worn by Carrie Bradshaw for the socks' taste.

Back at Ann's sock's house, they cheered on the Celtics as they beat the Lakers.

(They like Boston because they figure they needed to cheer on a town that had a team with the name Sox.)

What happens next? Does Lin's sock get into more shenanigans? Will the socks float down the flooding Iowa River? Do the socks actually grow in size? Stay tuned!

6-3-08 Episode 4:  Tragedy strikes

The socks had heard that with all the melting snow, spring rains, and whatnot, that City Park has been partially flooded lately and decided to go check it out.  Sure enough, they saw trees appearing to grow right out of the river…

Lin’s sock wanted a better look.  “What if I just climb this tree?  Hey, that would make an awesome photo, wouldn’t it?  I’m gonna be famous!  Look, guys, no hands!”

 “Wait!”  the twins shouted, but it was too late.  A gust of wind came up and blew Lin’s sock right into the mud.  “Help, help!”  she spluttered.  The other socks had to rescue her.

Lin’s sock was very muddy and wet and cold.   “That’s what you get for showing off,” Ann’s sock scolded.  They tried to enjoy the rest of their park visit anyway – they rode the little carousel…

and, with a little help, the big train.

Lin’s sock wanted to have her picture taken with the conductor, but the other socks wouldn’t let her.  “Haven’t you already caused enough trouble for one day?”  they asked.  “He looks grumpy enough already without being asked to hold a muddy sock.  And since we’re on the subject, when are you going to get cleaned up?  These pictures are going to be seen on the internet, after all.”  Lin’s sock begrudgingly went off to have a bath in the drinking fountain.

After such a stressful morning, the socks all decided to calm down a bit with a trip to their favorite local bookstore, Prairie Lights.

Nancy’s and Ann’s socks went in and spent a pleasant hour browsing and came home with some good reading material for the weekend.  Lin’s sock had to wait in the car because she was still sopping wet.

Will Lin’s sock ever dry out?    Will the other socks hold a grudge over having had to fish her out of the mud?  What further adventures await?  Stay tuned til next time!

5-26-08 The socks had a busy week!

They had a visit from Alice, who is Lawyer Mary's granddog.



"She won't eat us, will she?" asked Nancy's twins.


"I'm not really sure about this," said Ann's socks.

Then they hung out with Coralville's Sock Club



"New friends!" cried Lin's socks.



They spied the new Noro sock yarn. "Let's hope our knitters don't decide to replace us with this yarn!" said Nancy's socks.

No worries, little socks.

Finally, they did get a little questing in…although it wasn't exactly one that will get much notoriety, but they had fun anyway.

They went to a birthday party for Ann's five-year-old niece!

They played skee ball, air hockey, and went down a slide!

They rode a play horse and rode a toy truck!

They spied an empty table with a bunch of tickets and considered taking them…



But were good socks and instead tried to climb the stairs to the tubes…



And realized they had no feet!

Then some kid took them and tried to whack them!



Finally it was time for cake!

A good time was had by all, including the birthday girl, who was so tired by the end of the evening she refused a picture with the socks.



The socks are determined, though, to keep on their quest, so stay tuned for more fun!

5-14-08 The quest continues…well, sort of….

Ann had big plans to take the socks on another adventure, but because her staff had sick kids and doctor appointments, Ann needed to fill in at work.

So she took the socks with her.

They tried to be good for Ann.

They played a game.

They hung out at Chameleon Cache, playing with Erin's beads.



But socks will be socks, and eventually they got themselves into all sorts of trouble.

They played around with the swift.



And made a real mess of things




And then fooled around with the ball winder.



Making Ann very upset.

"It's a beautiful day!" she said. "Go outside and get some fresh air!"

So they checked out the landscape around Town Center.




They rested.




They enjoyed the serenity of the fountain outside of Terrapin Coffee.




Almost wishing they knew how to knit so that they could appreciate the down time.




After coming back inside, they noticed something new--

What was this? Socks?

"Hi," they said.

"Hi," said the socks. Turns out the socks belonged to Nancy.




Ann's socks and Lin's socks looked at each other. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Lin's socks? Ann's socks nodded.



And so the adventure continues…with a couple more socks joining in on the fun!

The journey continues---will the socks ever get to go anywhere? Will the twins enjoy the trip? What will they see, what will they do? Stay tuned!

5-9-08 The socks have had a delay due to:

Ann having sick kids


Ann having spring cleaning issues

4-22-08 The Quest Continues….

As Lin's sock had many worries:



"Does my heel look big?"

Ann's sock was contemplating spring finally arriving:



and decided to give Lin's sock a call.

"Let's get out of the house!"

So they took a road trip to their favorite out of town yarn store, Crazy Girl in Muscatine.

They hung out at the shop and had a chance to say hi to their old sock yarn friends.



Since it was such a beautiful day, they headed down to the Mississippi, only a block from the store.



And what did they see but…



a barge!



As they basked in the sun and watched the river pass them by, they considered themselves to be very lucky socks, indeed.

Since spring had finally sprung, the socks took time to contemplate what exactly their next steps would be. So the questions remain-where will the socks find themselves next? Will Ann finally put down her other projects and work on this sock? Does Lin's sock get comfortable with her foot image? Who will they meet along the way, and will they attain the internet fame they so wish they could have? Stay tuned…..

4-19-08 Crazy Girl Socks Begin Quest For Internet Fame: Episode 1

As a loyal reader of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's blog (the Yarn Harlot), Lin's sock has always been fascinated by all the awesome places Stephanie's sock gets to visit, and all the famous-to-knitters people they get to meet - but she always figured that that was the bonus that came with blog fame. Recently, however, the Yarn Harlot launched her new book in Toronto and celebrated with hundreds of pictures of ordinary folks' socks doing all kinds of fun things. Lin's sock was very jealous.



She wasted no time, but got right on the phone to Ann's sock

"I'm jealous! Why can't we have our pictures all over the web, too?
Ann's sock checked out the Toronto pictures and agreed - "Yeah, we could be famous, too!"



They decided to meet for coffee at Capanna, on the ped mall, to plan their quest for sock fame.

Lin's sock wondered if it was too early in the morning to have gelato, too, but then they were foiled by a diligent employee who forbade any picture-taking.


Disappointed, they retreated to the Iowa City Public Library to console themselves with one of their favorite activities…browsing the excellent knitting-book selection.


Ann's sock suggested that perhaps a tour of downtown Iowa City would be fun - they could visit the highlights of the Ped Mall, go to some of their favorite local hang-outs, have some lunch? They went to the window to talk about where to visit first, and saw:

Rain. Lots of it. And - was that even a few flakes of snow? The socks decided that they didn't feel like getting soaked before they even had a foot inside to keep warm, and they would save their tour for a warmer - or at least drier - day.

Will Lin's and Ann's socks reach their goal of internet sock fame? Will spring ever arrive in Iowa City? What time of day is too early for gelato? Where are the socks' favorite places to hang out in town? And what about field trips outside of town? For the answers to these and other burning questions, stay tuned to this website for the further adventures of the Crazy Socks!